The Workplace Democracy Act

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Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI) have introduced the Workplace Democracy Act, a bill that will repair our badly broken labor laws by restoring to working people the right to join a union and negotiate a first union contract.

Workers' rights are core values of any democracy. Providing strong, uncompromising freedom and legal protection for workers to organize, gain a collective bargaining agreement, and resolve conflicts with their employer are fundamental to a fair society. This legislation mandates stronger legal protections for workers to exercise their basic first amendment rights: to speak, assemble, and to organize.

Thousands of workers are harassed, bullied, and fired each year while trying to organize a union, and corporations willfully violate labor laws without fear of prosecution or penalty. We are working and living in a labor rights emergency. This undermines the rights of workers to join together and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions, and fuels rising inequality. Today, corporate profits are at an all-time high, while wages remain stagnant and benefits and working conditions continue to be slashed.

The Workplace Democracy Act would:

Make it easier for workers to organize free from interference or intimidation by their employer

Guarantee first contracts by providing workers with an arbitration process, if necessary

Although the Workplace Democracy Act is unlikely to come to the floor of the current anti-worker Congress, it is still important that we work to build support for this legislation. Our future as a union, and as a labor movement, depends on our ability to secure the kind of real labor law reform that this bill contains. We must educate ourselves, our members, Congress, and others in the labor movement about the contents of this bill, and why it is so important for them to help publicize and support it.

Any member of Congress who expects working people to support them should co-sponsor and support this bill instantly. A refusal to do so will speak for itself.

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While employers are getting trillions of dollars in bailout money to offset the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, many workers are deemed essential and forced to continue working in unsafe conditions with little or no protection.

Workers are fighting for and winning Personal Protective Equipment, additional sick leave, hazard pay or in some cases forcing their employers to temporarily suspend work until it is safe to return. This is the fight of our lives.

Are you ready to take action to protect yourself and your co-workers? We can help.